“A local church is a group of Christians who regularly gather in Christ’s name to officially affirm and oversee one another’s membership in Jesus Christ and his kingdom through gospel preaching and gospel ordinances.” -Jonathan Leeman Following is the transcript. It was initially intended to be heard, not read, so the tone is more conversational than…
Are there any older siblings here this morning? For those who just raised their hands, know that from this day forward, I may never treat you the same. If you haven’t guessed, I have one brother, and I’m the younger one. I’ll be honest; I used to hate when my mom would leave my older…
Perhaps you had a chance to watch the Grammy’s last month. I personally didn’t, as that’s never been my cup of tea. However, my social media timeline was flooded with articles about Sam Smith’s performance. I had never heard of that name before this incident, but apparently, he dressed up as a devil to perform…
We live in a day when the therapeutic gospel is prevalent. Many will claim that the fundamental problem with humanity is that we’re selfish, lack self-esteem, or don’t truly know how to love ourselves. Once we address these external problems, the renewal will supposedly take place in our lives through the help of Jesus. This…
Isn’t it interesting how we can know the title of a role but have no idea what that job actually entails? When I was a juvenile probation officer, people legit believed I had the authority to take their kids to jail if they broke the law! When my job mainly consisted of paperwork. Perhaps you’ve…
We are a people prone to extremes. Instead of moderation, we swing the pendulum to either the far left or the far right. This certainly appears to be the case with church discipline within our local assemblies. Written almost eighty years ago, Greek scholar H.E. Dana rightly states, “The abuse of discipline is reprehensible and…
For the past six weeks, we’ve been considering the doctrine of the local church. In this series, we’ve defined a local church, its membership, the offices within the church, and how the keys of the kingdom gives a job to every member of the church. This morning we turn our attention to the ordinances, namely…
Take your copy of God’s Word and meet me in Hebrews 10:19-25… 19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a…
Take your copy of God’s Word and meet me in Matthew 28:16-20…This week is the last installment of our Doctrine of the Church series. Therefore, allow me to provide you with a brief recap of what we’ve covered over the previous eight weeks. In the first message, we defined the local church. With Leeman’s help,…
